The present disclosure relates to video processing apparatuses and video processing methods and, more particularly, to a video processing apparatus and a video processing method configured to reduce the processing load caused by movement of a view area of a multiple-video image.
Due to progress in content digitization and the development of a video transmission infrastructure, video distribution through the Internet is spreading. Recently, in addition to personal computers, network-connectable television receivers have been increasing as reception side devices, and therefore it has become possible to view distributed videos on a television receiver. Furthermore, the recent development of cloud services has made it possible to provide various channels including private contents to viewers via a network. Thus, there has been an increasing demand for a multiple-video reproduction system that allows viewers to simultaneously watch a plurality of videos as shown in FIG. 1 in order to allow the viewers to easily search for a preferred video to watch.
In the multiple-video reproduction system of FIG. 1, a multiple-video image displayed on a screen is composed of a plurality of videos. Among the videos displayed, a main video that is supposed to be mainly viewed is arranged at the center of the screen in a maximum size. Around the main video, selectable (switchable) videos are arranged in sizes smaller than that of the main video. The selectable videos are, for example, TV broadcasting channels, Web screens, video contents of movies and the like, and TV chat screens, and are obtained, for example, from within a cloud (network).
Among methods for displaying such a multiple-video image, a first method employs servers in the cloud that distributes a plurality of encoded streams associated with a plurality of videos, respectively. A client apparatus receives and decodes the encoded streams and performs combination processing on the decoded streams so as to generate a multiple-video image. By way of example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-064818 discloses a multiple-video image that is formed by receiving a plurality of elementary streams (ESs) and assigning a larger view area to the ES in order of decreasing precedence starting from higher priority ESs on a basis of the display priority of the ESs.
However, distribution of the plurality of encoded streams involves a substantially wide transmission band. Also, it is necessary for client apparatuses to have the capabilities of simultaneously decoding the encoded streams and of performing combination processing on the decoded streams, which makes the client apparatuses expensive.
As a second method for displaying a multiple-video image, there is a method in which a server generates a multiple-video image in the form of a single encoded stream and delivers the stream as illustrated in FIG. 2. In this case, the server decodes a plurality of videos to be combined, resizes the videos, combines the videos, and then re-encodes the combined videos so as to generate an encoded stream of a multiple-video image. These processes put a substantially large processing load on the server.